Point of View Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered Activism With a Little Kink and Human Sexuality Thrown In

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Election Night, An LGBT Recap

"Delusional Conservatives that predicted a Romney victory are now learning that they were full of shit, and that math is a real thing that exists." - Me, last night.

I'll skip over Obama's landmark victory (because you can find volumes on it everywhere) and delve into some of the important House and Senate races and ballot measures.

First of all, the National Organization for Marriage talking point that voters have always upheld traditional marriage is no longer valid. (Not that it ever really was considering that Washington State voters passed an 'everything but marriage' law in 2009 that gave LGBT couples all the financial benefits of marriage without calling it marriage.)

In Maine, a Marriage Equality law passed by a margin of 53%-47%.

In Maryland, a Marriage Equality law passed by a margin of 52.3%-47.7% (which was the one most surprising to me personally).

In Minnesota, a Constitutional Marriage Equality ban failed by a margin of 51.3%-47.6% (with a number of blank ballots).

And finally, just this afternoon, Washington's Marriage Equality law was called as having passedwith votes still coming in, but a rough margin of 52%-48%.

In short, Marriage Equality went 4-0 last night. But that wasn't all that went in favor of LGBT, of Women, and of the Sex-Positive:

Todd "legitimate rape" Akin lost his senate seat by a wide margin (15.5%) to Claire McCaskill in Missouri.

Richard "rape is a gift from god" Mourdock lost his senate seat by 5.5% to Joe Donnelly in Indiana.

Tammy Baldwin won her senate race in Minnesota (5.6%) to become the United States's first out Lesbian senator.

Mazie Hirono won her senate race in Hawaii (25.2%) to become the first Asian-American woman to serve in the senate.

Tulsi Gabbard won her House race in Hawaii by an overwhelming margin (61.2%) to become the first Hindu-American Congresswoman.

And Elizabeth Warren won a nasty election against Scott Brown in Massachusetts where Brown attempted to smear her with derisive remarks and racist comments on her Native American ancestry.

There was some bad news too as Michele Bachmann and Paul Ryan were able to hold on to their House seats in Minnesota and Wisconsin respectively (though both won by less than half the votes they won by in 2008).

Nevertheless, yesterday was an almost flawless victory. (A Ryan Miller shutout if you will Sabres fans.) We have set records both for most open LGBT individuals serving in Congress, and for most women serving in Congress. Often progress is slow and measured, but yesterday we moved ahead by leaps and bounds. It is a day I will never forget, because I believe it is a beginning.